Romain Grosjean, in a recent interview, revealed that it is partly his fault that he never got to drive a championship-winning car during his career at Formula 1.
The former Haas driver will be making his debut at IndyCar this weekend. He was with Formula 1 from 2009 till last season. He took a gap of two years after his debut with Renault and returned with Lotus. He then joined Haas in 2016.
Looking back on his career, he revealed that he was “happy” with his time spent at F1. He had 10 podium finishes, the last of which came six years ago.
“You can’t stay 10 years in Formula 1 and not be happy about it,” he said.
“Did I regret that I never had the car to win races and championships? Yes. But was it in my hand? Probably a bit. Also probably not.”
Grosjean also mentioned that his most competitive time in F1 was back in 2013. But unfortunately, his Lotus team suffered a dire 2014, which is the one regret he has in his career.
“Coming [after] such a strong end of 2013, the team was in a difficult situation financially, change of regulations in the engine, it was going to be a problem to get it working.
“When you’re going up like this [and] you end up having the worst car on the grid, it’s complicated to get a good seat.”
Grosjean will be joining Jimmie Johnson and Scott McLaughlin, multiple champions in NASCAR and Australian Supercars respectively at IndyCar. He is looking forward to competing on a level playing field with them.
“I think it’s a great series where you’ve got top drivers, top level, top races,” he said.
“You get a chance to pretty much have the same tools as your friends, competitors.
“Formula 1 is wonderful. It’s great. But, I mean, I’m putting money on the fact that Lewis [Hamilton] is going to be eight-time world champion this year.
“I’ve really enjoyed my time there. I’ve had a great career. But also I was at the end of what I wanted to do there. Fighting with Haas to [get] out of Q1 when everything was fantastic is something that I had enough [of]. It was no real fun.”
Grosjean also believes that him moving to IndyCar will be his first realistic shot at winning a race in 10 years.
“The last time I got really the chance to have the same tools as the others was 2011 in GP2.
“I was close to win a few times in Formula 1, but I was also in the era with Raikkonen and Vettel who dominated everything.
“I was close few times, but not on an every-race basis.”
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